NEAR THE BORDERS OF SYRIA, TURKEY AND IRAQ -Small waves broke over the sides of the creaky raft that our Kurdish contacts had lashed together from old inner tubes and scraps of plywood. Though it was only about as wide as a city avenue, the river was high with the spring melt, and the water was the color of coffee…

Frank Smyth crossed into Iraq with Kurdish guerillas in March 1991, when their uprising against Saddam Hussein was going well. He was, however, captured by Saddam’s army and held in an Iraqi prison. This is a diary account of his imprisonment.